Why ‘Spider-Verse’ Might Become One of Our Greatest Trilogies

 

I have a confession to make: I wasn’t all that excited about 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in the lead-up to its release. At the time, Marvel fans were still reeling from Avengers: Infinity War, and with Tom Holland’s Spidey claiming his rightful place as one of the central figures in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an animated multiverse movie about Miles Morales felt like a side dish. Ancillary. Unimportant. Kids’ stuff.

Then, of course, I saw the movie, which not only changed what I thought a Spider-Man film could be, but what animated films were capable of in general. Much like Spider-Ham eating a hot dog, I was wrong. Way wrong.

Meanwhile, the MCU’s Spidey story would continue beyond Endgame with Far from Home and No Way Home, the latter of which brought classic Peter Parkers Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield back into the tights – alongside some familiar villains – in what became the most crowd-pleasing Spider-Man story ever brought to film … until this past Friday when Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse premiered.

I’m clearly not alone in loving the film, directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson. In fact, in what is a statistical near-impossibility, social media seems united in their praise for the sequel, which somehow distills a multiverse-spanning narrative into a rich character study for main characters Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) and Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac). Marrying swaggering bombast with careful craftsmanship, this film honors 80 years of Spider-Man canon across media while telling an all-new story about heroism, found family, identity and – since this is a Spidey flick after all – great power and the responsibility that comes with it.

But of course, that story is far from over. In a move that knocked us all back from the edge of our seats, Across the Spider-Verse ends with a big ol’ “To Be Continued,” forcing us to wait until the next issue sequel arrives next March in the form of Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. And without getting into spoiler territory (because even a few days after release, that would be criminal), Miles and friends find themselves in a precarious spot (ha!) before the credits roll, so the next few months are going to be excruciating as we wait to see what happens next. But until that point, I plan on watching Across the Spider-Verse many, many more times. From the wide variety of animation styles on display to the sheer volume of activity and characters filling the frame at times, this film demands repeat viewing.

It's admittedly rare these days to find myself truly compelled to watch a Marvel film more than once. The aforementioned No Way Home aside, the post-Endgame MCU stories have felt more like DLC than bonafide superhero epics – secondary to the already-completed main quest that reached its logical conclusion four years ago. Fortunately, the outstanding Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 changed all that by bringing us one of the best MCU films ever last month (thank you, James Gunn!) and the non-MCU-but-very-much-still-connected-to-the-MCU Across the Spider-Verse kept that momentum going in a major way. And if Miles sticks the landing next March, we might be considering the Spider-Verse trilogy not only one of the best superhero trilogies of all time, but one of the greatest movie trilogies PERIOD.

So yeah, about Spider-Verse being a side dish? There’s been a change to the menu. Now, True Believers, we feast.